30 Days of Shenko
by theprettynerdie
Summary: 30 days. 30 words of inspiration. 30 drabbles. Featuring Commander Brielle Shepard and Kaidan Alenko.
1. 1 Beginning

Based on the relationship between Kaidan Alenko and my FemShep, Commander Brielle Shepard (Soldier, Paragon, Earthborn, Sole Survivor). A collection of drabbles, one a day for 30 days, each based on a prechosen word - the result of a fanfic challenge posted on my tumblr blog. Drabble ratings vary from K to M.

**1.**  
**beginning**

Looking back, years down the road, when the finer points of the events of the war were just beginning to achieve a level of fuzzy detail, the two of them can't help but remind themselves just how extraordinary their journey has been. Not their political journey (rife with vid campaigns and ceremonies and other public things that never suited them), or their military journey (the one that tested their physical prowess to the breaking point). No, those were the journeys they dared not dwell on. In the end, all that really mattered to them was _their_journey.

The one that, like it or not, was forged from the very start under circumstances of war and some level of desperation. Even now, on the calmest of evenings two decades past their final mission, Kaidan feels that desperation and raw, unfettered passion in every caress placed upon him. He feels it just as Brielle can feel, with every thrust of his body, his own building intensity, that loss of careful, self-imposed control. Decades later, they make love as they did on their first night: as though the world around them may shatter, as though they may be torn from each other's arms at any moment, as though every touch might be their last chance to_ feel._

After all they have seen and done, who is to say otherwise?


	2. 2 Accusation

**2.**  
**accusation**

If there was only one good thing that Kaidan took away from his hellish experience with Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training, it was the knowledge that there was no power worth trading your humanity for.

_The potential for biotics to become a blessing or a curse all depends on the individual's willingness to invest in harnessing that natural power._That was the constant refrain at Brain Camp. Pure propaganda, all of it. Kaidan knew that biotics were, at best, a curse to be managed; at worst, a corrupting influence. You could harness the power, but at what cost? All that testing came to was a handful of powerful but unstable kids and the forfeiting of countless individuals' humanity and consciousness. Nothing requiring such harsh methods is worth the cost.

Yet sixteen years later, other groups were quietly following in the BAaT's footsteps, using any means necessary to cultivate new sources of potential might for humanity. Most prominent among them was, of course, Cerberus, the perpetual thorn in the Alliance's side. Kaidan had heard his fair share of stories about the extremes of the group's pro-humanity ideology and the methods they employed to implement that end. And he also knew that Cerberus posed a much greater threat to galactic security, with their seemingly unlimited coffers and capacity for ruthless efficiency, than a mismanaged government project like the BAaT program.

For Kaidan, Cerberus remained a merely disturbing blight on humanity's progress until very recently. Now it had proven itself to be perhaps the most incredible evil this side of the Reaper threat.

It had taken Shepard.

It was hard enough losing the one thing that had inspired real, genuine hope, not just for humanity, but for himself. It was worse seeing her being molded into a tool by the same kind of group that had twisted and manipulated so many others in the name of power.

He had no doubt that it really was Shepard: that blazing look, her firm grasp, her stilted but passionate demeanor - none of that could be manufactured in any kind of lab. Yet that was what made everything so much worse.

She wasn't defending Cerberus -she, like Kaidan, despised the extremes of the pro-humanity movement for her own reasons. She hadn't been brainwashed, because such work could easily be undone; besides, her conviction was too strong to be broken, and Cerberus was too smart to even try it. Cerberus had instead used the things she loved the most to bend her to its will. It had appealed to her innate need to protect, to fight the fights that others were too blind to see or unwilling to do.

Walking away from the woman he loved, the woman who was offering him a chance to start over with her again, was all that much harder because of that. Had she been a VI, Kaidan could have turned his back on her, knowing that the Shepard he loved was truly dead and gone. Had she been brainwashed, he could have made her see the light and brought her back to him.

He cannot compromise who he is, not even for the woman who was instrumental in making him into that man. Shepard, the one he knew and loved, would never do that.

If Shepard had changed, it would all have been so simple! He could have finally lain the woman he loved to rest after two long years and work toward building the kind of future for humanity that they had envisioned. But Kaidan was not so cruel so as to let himself believe so little of Shepard. He knew damn well that she was too strong-willed for that.

All he could do now was keep on loving her.


	3. 3 Restless

**3.**  
**restless**

"Sorry, Commander."

It was the briefest of touches, a simple grazing of the arms as they passed each other by, but it was enough to send a chill up Shepard's spine. It was enough to remind her of his firmer, more lasting touches...

This was the price of that night before Ilos: no more fraternization on the Normandy. Their duty to the Alliance and to the mission came first. The most they could hope for was something like this, brushing against each other momentarily as they passed each other by in the corridors.

Which is why they both found themselves making all sorts of excuses to accidentally bump into each other several times a day. Everything was unspoken, but all they had to say was clear in Shepard's steady gaze and Kaidan's soft smile...

Reaper activity was apparently nonexistent in the system they were assigned to investigate, and it had Shepard on edge. Things were so much easier when there was a tangible threat facing her. With nothing to focus on, her mind kept drifting - always to things she had no business drifting to. She needed to keep moving or she would start to lose her mind.

Which is how, later that evening, Shepard found herself on the second deck in front of the sleeper pods - and Kaidan. He looked up.

"Something you need, Commander?" His gaze was steady, but his demeanor was casual.

"Nothing right now, Lieutenant," Shepard replied. She turned her back on him and moved toward her locker.

"Actually-" She turned back to him. The mess hall was completely deserted except for the two of them.

_Screw this._

With three quick strides, she was upon him. Kaidan stumbled backward slightly as Shepard captured his mouth in hers, and he grasped the control panel behind him for support as he kissed her back.

Goddamn, had she _missed_this. Her hands moved to grasp the back of Kaidan's head, and she threaded her fingers through his hair, breathing in the heady scent of his skin.

"Shepard-" Kaidan gasped. "Wh-"

"Don't speak, not yet," Shepard whispered. "Let's just-"

Pressing her body against his, she brought her hands down his back, slipping them into the waistband of his trousers. She clutched at his backside, and she felt his arousal firmly pressing into her as she began to thrust against him. Kaidan brought his own hands up to meet her hips. His resolve slipping, he grasped Shepard firmly and, with a carnal groan, spun her around and against the wall behind them.

They were kissing furiously now, hands groping at hair and neck and breasts and ass, as they rocked against each other violently. They came almost simultaneously, gasping and sighing and moaning against each other's lips.

"_Hell_, Shepard," Kaidan groaned, stepping away from her at last. "What are you_ thinking_?"

"I'm thinking," Shepard said, "that we have to renegotiate the conditions of that deal we made before Ilos."

"What do you mean?" Kaidan asked seriously.

"Well," she said, "we can't have something like that happening aboard the Normandy again. But I'm not willing to lose my best lieutenant. So -" she smiled,

"I think we'll have to arrange for a bit of shore leave, don't you?"


	4. 4 Snowflake

**4.**  
**snowflake**

On the morning of the first Vancouver snowfall, Kaidan found his wife sitting on the floor in front of the window overlooking the water, wrapped in a blanket and nursing a cup of hot tea. He padded over, placed a kiss on top of her head, and sat down beside her.

"How do you like the view?" he asked.

"It's nice," Brielle said, leaning in and placed her head on his shoulder. "Better than all that rain."

Kaidan chuckled. "That's true. How's the tea?"

"Warm," Brielle said. "Want some?"

"I'd love some." Brielle brought the cup to her husband's lips, and he clasped the bottom as he took a sip. "As good as always." He smiled. "So how come you're up so early?"

"I think I slept badly these past few nights," Brielle replied, "because my back has been killing me."

"At least you're up," Kaidan said. "You've been sleeping quite a bit lately. Nausea gone?"

"It comes and it goes. I just wish my body would figure out what it wants so I can fix it."

"I'll ask my mom to bring some of her special soup with her when she visits tomorrow," Kaidan said. "That should do the trick."

"Mmm, that sounds nice." They sat in silence for a few moments.

"You know," Brielle said. "I've never made a snowman before. Might be fun."

Kaidan smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."


	5. 5 Haze

**5.**  
**haze**

He couldn't stop smiling.

Kaidan Alenko: Sentinel, Lieutenant, Major, the second human Spectre ... Father. It was that last one that he was most proud of.

"I guess we're just not going to get around to building that snowman," he whispered into his wife's ear.

She grinned, then pressed her lips to his ear. Her words were laced with concupiscence. "Well then, you're going to have to make it up to me, won't you?"

He looked down at her through the haze of inebriation wrought by one beer too many and kissed her fiercely. She responded with equal fervor, letting out a small sigh and sliding her hand down the back of his neck to cling to his shoulders. While their lovemaking had never been anything like slow or cautious, Kaidan was surprised nonetheless by Brielle's voracity. She was emitting quick, frantic breaths, and clutching him such force that he could feel himself being dragged forward against her. He broke away.

"Either I drank a lot more than I thought," he said, "or this is one hell of a baby we're having."

"Think you can keep up, Alenko?" Brielle teased.

"With you, Shepard?" Kaidan said. "I'll try."

She was on top of him in an instant, groping and pulling at his shirt as she pressed hungry kisses against his skin. She trailed her mouth up to the muscles of his arms, allowing him to remove her own shirt as she planted kisses there too.

"Dammit," Brielle moaned. She moved off of Kaidan, and for an instant he thought she might be nauseous again. Instead, she dropped to her knees in front of him and tugged at the belt of his pants, nearly tearing the fabric as she pushed them down past his knees. She leaned forward and drew him into her mouth at once, and the heat of her mouth was so sudden, so unexpected, that Kaidan felt his whole body shake violently. He reached down and placed a hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair as she sucked around him.

"Easy," he panted, "or I might come right on the spot-"

Kaidan sank to the floor in front of Brielle and seized her mouth with his own, pulling her pants down as he did so. She let out a low, sensual groan as she moved to sit astride her husband and press against him.

She was thrusting against him before he fully realized he was inside her. He leaned forward, placed a hand on either side of her face, and moved to meet the speed of her thrusts. He did his best to focus his gaze despite the alcohol in his system and the steady pounding of an oncoming migraine in his head. She wrapped her arms around the back of his shoulders and held him close, driving against him furiously. She let out a cry as she reached her climax, and she continued to grind her hips against Kaidan as she rode the waves of her orgasm. He followed soon after, happy to have the pain in his head pushed temporarily at bay by the warm ripples of pleasure coursing through him.

The next eight months were going to be very interesting.


	6. 6 Flame

**6.**  
**flame**

Making love by candlelight was one of their better rituals. It gave the impression that the whole experience was some sort of magic.

Of course, that assessment wasn't very far off. Everything about them had a kind of magic about it, from the way they could communicate with each other just by using their eyes, to the way Brielle's simple presence could hold off the worst of Kaidan's migraines, to the perfect way they could make their bodies sing with the slightest of touches.

Brielle looked to the other side of the best where her husband lay and moved to take Kaidan's hand in her own. She squeezed lightly.

"The candle burned out," she told him, pressing her lips to the back of his neck.

"Well then, light another one."

Brielle smiled.

"I think we still have enough fire left in us," she said. She moved her free hand down to seize Kaidan's cock. He let out a small sigh as she stroked him smoothly.

"How is it," he breathed, "that you always know exactly what to do?"

"Must be instinct," Brielle replied. She slid beneath the sheets and settled her head between his thighs. She continued to grip Kaidan's hand as she took him into her mouth, humming slightly.

"God," Kaidan panted. "Is that -how it-feels ... when I'm inside you?"

"Mmm," Brielle replied, though she doubted anything could match the sensation of Kaidan, with his whole body prickling with biotic static, surrounding her inside and outside as he held her close, his skin sparking every bit as much as his groin.

Brielle moved her free hand down to stroke her own arousal, letting the vibrations of Kaidan's body and the electricity bristling the back of her neck where he had placed his other hand build her to a second, stimulating climax. Kaidan's grip on the back of her neck grounded her as she moaned helplessly around him. When the last vestiges of her orgasm left her, Brielle drew away from Kaidan just long enough to breath out, "I want to _hear_you."

He cried out as she sucked him down, swiping her tongue along the underside of his shaft and stroking a finger along his perineum. Soon he was bucking his groin so uncontrollably that his body lifted into the air with every thrust. Kaidan shouted incoherently as his whole body seized up; gripping Brielle's hand tightly, he came with a violent jolt. She swallowed him down effortlessly, letting the static of his body course through her.

It took Kaidan a couple of minutes to calm his body down enough to form words. Brielle slid back up and snuggled next to him, holding him close while he let the static pass through his body.

"God, you're incredible," he murmured, bringing the hand Brielle had entwined in his to his lips.

"Back at you," Brielle whispered.


	7. 7 Formal

**7.**  
**formal**

"It's been three months already," Brielle complained. "I'm so tired of this damn room."

"Well," Kaidan chuckled, "Get those legs to work again and you can just walk out of here."

"Very funny, Alenko," she said, staring down at her paralyzed legs unhappily.

It had to be killing her, Kaidan mused, to not be able to contribute to the rebuilding effort. Brielle Shepard was a woman of action, always had been. Being confined to the same room for the better part of three months was not befitting of a war hero. Not that she wanted that title, of course; if there was one benefit of the slow nature of her recuperation, it was the fact that she wasn't being required to pose for adverts or appear in news vids.

But three months was a lot of time to spend just watching the aftermath. The destruction of the Reapers had left the galaxy scrambling to rebuild technology, which meant that any number of medical advances that would ordinarily have had the Commander back on her feet within a couple of months at most were presently out of reach.

"Just out of curiosity," Kaidan said, "where would you plan on going? If you could leave here, that is."

"Anywhere but here," Brielle replied. "Just take the Normandy, tell Joker to-"

She stopped. Brielle very much doubted that Joker would be inclined to set foot on the Normandy anytime soon. Last she heard, he was still looking for any news about his father and sister and hardly making much contact with Alliance command.

"I don't know," Brielle admitted. "I never had much of a home to speak of."

They were silent for a long while after that.

"You know," Kaidan said finally. "Well... remember when I told you about my parents' place in Vancouver?"

"Yeah."

"I, uh... didn't mention that they own a second house nearby." He fidgeted nervously, looking down at his hands instead of Brielle's face.

"They used to rent out a bunch of properties as vacation homes until the Reapers killed the view. The one I'm talking about is their only other beachfront. I thought it might have been razed when Vancouver got hit, but I checked it out a couple of days ago and it's still standing. Hardly scratched, actually."

"Kaidan," Brielle whispered, "you aren't asking me to move in with you, are you?"

"Well," he stammered, the color rising steadily in his cheeks, "I wanted to do this all a bit more formally. You know, wait for 'perfect moment' and all that. But hell, the two of us have never been much good with patience...or ceremony."

He looked over Brielle, who was trying, with difficulty, to straighten up, and took both her hands in his own.

"You know you're the only woman for me," he said. "And I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for the chance to say this. Will you marry me?"

"Kaidan," Brielle murmured, smiling more radiantly than ever before in her life, "was there ever any doubt?"


	8. 8 Companion

**8.**  
**companion**

Marriage. It was a very difficult thing for Brielle to wrap her head around.

It wasn't the concept of marrying Kaidan; spending the rest of her life with that man was the one thing she was completely sure of these days. But along with marriage came the dirty business of the actual joining.

Kaidan had been right; the two of them never were much good with rules or ceremony. Yet marriage seemed to be nothing _but_ceremony to the world at large. Just thinking about the business of being married made Brielle's head spin. She and Kaidan seemed so natural these days, she wished she could make it official with a snap of the fingers.

There was no hesitation about making it official on Brielle or Kaidan's part. But even he, who had made the proposal in the first place, didn't enjoy the prospect of planning or taking part in a ceremony where the only people not enjoying the affair would be the bride and groom.

Invitations. Rings. Dress blues. Food. Neither of them knew where to start.

But of course, they _did_. Because they knew exactly where this all started.

They only needed one other person, and lucky for them, Admiral Hackett was more than willing to set everything up. He more than anything understood their desire for secrecy.

So by special arrangement, the Normandy was cleared of personnel and Brielle and Kaidan, happily dressed down and beaming gloriously, were married on the ship's deck by Hackett himself.

And no matter how many times their friends gave them hell about not telling them about their engagement, or not inviting them to be present at the ceremony, or refusing to accept wedding presents, Brielle and Kaidan didn't feel the least bit guilty.

As Brielle put it herself: "The war is over. It's about time we started worrying about ourselves."

They had each other. It was enough.


	9. 9 Move

**9.**  
**move**

"You weren't kidding. This place is _enormous_."

Kaidan smiled. "A far cry from bunking in the Normandy, I know."

"This is a vacation house?"

"It was for many years," he said, wrapping his arms around Brielle's waist from behind. "But now it's ours."

"Mmm," Brielle murmured, leaning back to press her face against Kaidan's neck and place a kiss there. "I like the sound of that."

From the patio, Kaidan and Brielle were able to walk down to the beach and go for a walk along the coast. They spent a nice long while just sitting by the icy water, hand in hand, watching the sun move across the sky. Mid-afternoon found them testing out the new downstairs kitchen as Kaidan fixed a plate of bacon sandwiches for them to share. It was nearly sunset by the time he suggested that they check the upper level.

Brielle was glad of the fact that they had waited to climb the stairs to their private living area. The upper level was huge and completely open, save for a second, smaller kitchen and bar area like the one downstairs and a single couch near the front of the room where there was, not a wall, but an immense bay window that presented Brielle with a view of the most breathtaking sunset she had ever seen.

"Kaidan," she sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I know." He threaded his fingers through hers, leading her into the bedroom. "Beautiful view."


	10. 10 Silver

**10.**  
**silver**

A gleam of silver.

As Brielle shifted slightly in her seat, her N7 tags reflected the sunlight so that it danced in front of Kaidan's eyes. He squinted and took a sip of his wine.

Brielle only wore two pieces of jewelry: her N7 dog tags and her wedding ring. She didn't have a need for anything else, she had said. She liked simple things, like good food, and decent alcohol, and candles and making love.

When their lives were complicated by war and destruction, it was the simple things that anchored them. Even after everything had quieted down, after their children had grown and left for Alliance training themselves and the complexity of their routine faded, these things remained to as reminders of what brought them together and kept them that way.

That gleam of silver, the same one that caught Kaidan's eye in the wreckage of London and led him back to Brielle, was the dearest reminder of all.


	11. 11 Prepared

**11.**  
**prepared**

It was very curious, Brielle considered, how preparing for a baby was very like preparing for war.

Once again it became necessary for Brielle to assemble a crew; a doctor, a doula, and, most importantly, a pre- and post-birth support team. It was crucial for Brielle to find the latter, with Kaidan still dedicated to working part-time with training young biotic students in Vancouver. It was during this time that she began to realize just how much she had come to depend on the Normandy team during the war. Not that she hadn't appreciated the depth of everyone's dedication at the time; it was obvious how important they all had been in the fight against the Reapers.

But they had also given Brielle definite peace of mind during a time when such a thing was fairly hard to come by. Whether it was providing her with a distraction from the hell in her head in the form of their own various concerns or simply the right words at the right time, Brielle's team had given her more than spectacular firepower. They had given her what she had needed most of all to win the fight.

But of course, as was always the case with Brielle Shepard, all the planning in the world still didn't mean complete preparation to deal with the surprise, startling details that always seemed to show up just when she felt like she had a grasp of the situation at hand.

Just like today, when she heard her doctor speak the words, "Congratulations. It looks like you're carrying twins."


	12. 12 Knowledge

**12.**  
**knowledge**

Brielle Shepard knew that the first thing she would see would be Kaidan Alenko's face, just as it had been the last.

He had been the one to find her, after all. He had been the one to gather the crew that searched the wreckage of London to recover her. He had been the one to physically dig her out of the rubble and carry her in his arms all the way to the Alliance hospital. He had been the one who never left her side, who glared and cursed so furiously that nobody dared to question his presence in her room for the three straight weeks she spent asleep.

Despite being doped up on a cocktail of painkillers, Brielle spoke her first words in a calm, clear voice: "You showed up."

"You knew I would, Shepard." He placed a hand on either side of her face, leaned down, and kissed her.

"Doesn't mean I'm not still ..." And she was out.

Brielle continued to fall in and out of consciousness, and Kaidan was always there when she woke up. Alliance brass continued coming in and out the first day after Brielle regained consciousness, hoping to hear about how exactly Commander Shepard had managed to save Earth, but Kaidan never let them question her. As always, he knew exactly what to say to every query and accusation. By the end of the day, he had managed to stymy the flow of officers demanding answers by appealing directly to Admiral Hackett.

He didn't ask her about anything that had happened after she made contact with the Citadel beam. Commander Shepard didn't need to be told or persuaded of the fact that the information was needed by Alliance command: she knew it well enough on her own, and she would speak about it in her own time.

For the better part of the first month, they barely spoke at all. Instead, they held each other's hands or watched the vids being broadcast in her room or simply looked at each other, hardly believing that this was real, that they were both here, together, while the Reapers were not.

Brielle couldn't move. The extent of her injuries was severe; it was doubtful that anyone other than herself could have survived after everything her body had been through. The entire lower half of her body was completely paralyzed, but it was nothing that modern medicine could not fix with time.

Thankfully, Brielle and Kaidan had all the time in the world.


	13. 13 Denial

**13.**  
**denial**

The galaxy's frustration was tangible. After a devastating war the likes of which none alive had ever known (save perhaps for Javik), people were clamoring to hear from the hero in the vids, the mysterious Commander Shepard.

The fact of her survival had been publicized almost immediately in an effort to boost the morale of a thoroughly worn down galaxy. Unfortunately, this meant that a seemingly infinite number of people were demanding all sorts of information about her and what she had done on Earth. As a result, her whereabouts were being heavily guarded by the very top of the chain of Alliance command; consequently, this meant that Brielle saw fewer than ten people over the course of her recovery. Not that she minded her privacy, of course. It was fun to laugh with Kaidan at the outrageous rumors being perpetuated by the vids these days.

Kaidan had become something of a guardian since the end of the war. Watching over her while she was out of commission, appealing directly to Hackett in order to maintain her privacy, helping her eat and sit up and keep her on schedule with her medication.

"Until Shepard decides she wants more visitors," Brielle overheard him say as she woke up one morning, "I'm not letting anyone in here. I don't care if you 'outrank' me, Colonel, you're not setting one foot in this door."

"If you continue to deny me access, _Major_, you will find yourself in a very sorry state indeed," the Colonel snapped back.

"I'd like to see you try," Kaidan said dangerously, "but you will have to go physically through me before that's going to happen. And if you do that, you'll have Admiral Hackett himself to deal with, and he'll make you a hell of a lot sorrier than I."

When the Colonel, in a towering temper, finally left, Kaidan turned around, his expression soft again. It was as if he hadn't even been yelling down a superior officer just moments before.

"Breakfast?"


	14. 14 Wind

**14.**  
**wind**

Settling down was a surreal experience, due in part to the fact that Brielle Shepard found excitement in the things that normal people tended to take for granted.

Prior to moving in with Kaidan, Brielle spent most of her time aboard ships or on distant planets. The variety of environments she experienced on those faraway worlds were little more than an annoyance, a distraction from the task at hand.

But sitting on the balcony of their Vancouver home, she found herself taking notice of every little subtlety of the weather: the scent of the breeze coming up from the water, the steady heat of the afternoon sunlight, the humming and buzzing of the insects. Brielle closed her eyes and turned her head up toward the sun, smiling serenely.

Kaidan's voice in her ear startled her, making her jump.

"Were you sleeping?" he asked, both alarmed and amused by her response.

"No," Brielle replied, "Just in the zone, you know?"

"I do. So, how was your day?"

"Quiet. Well, unless you count the twins," she said, gesturing toward her swollen belly.

"Ah," Kaidan said. "Not too bad today I hope?"

"Surprisingly calm. I was thinking of walking down to the beach actually."

"Good idea," Kaidan said. "Why don't you let me pack some food and we can set up a blanket by the shore?"

"That sounds amazing," Brielle said, "Let's just make sure we bring a chair with us this time."


	15. 15 Order

**15.**  
**order**

In the Alliance military, order and regulations dictated the lives of its officers. It was a hard habit for Shepard to break after all this time. She simply could not get the hang of the whole "weekend lie-in" business; she was wide awake by 7 am every morning, no matter how late she stayed up the night before.

So when Kaidan found her fast asleep beside him one morning, he knew something was wrong. He leaned over and gently kissed his wife on the temple.

"Mmm?" she murmured, shifting her head so she was turned toward Kaidan.

"It's nearly ten," he said. "I need to leave in an hour."

"What?" she muttered sleepily.

"It's almost ten," he repeated, a bit more firmly now. "Brielle-"

"What?" Brielle sprang up, so suddenly that she almost hit Kaidan with one of her flailing arms. Before he could move a muscle, she was out of bed and in the bathroom. He followed her at once.

Brielle was sitting on the floor, heaving into the toilet. Kaidan sat beside her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she emptied her stomach.

"What's wrong, baby?" he said softly.

"I don't know," Brielle's voice was nearly a whimper, and the sound of it alarmed Kaidan far more than anything yet. She sounded feeble, and that just wasn't in Brielle Shepard's nature.

"I'm calling a doctor," he said sharply. "I'm worried."

Kaidan helped Brielle to her feet and guided her back to bed. He climbed in after her and held her close as she cried against his chest for the first time in her life.

By half past ten her sobs had subsided into deep, heaving sighs, and five minutes later they were snores. Kaidan slipped out of bed quietly and called for a doctor. One of the benefits of being war heroes, he thought to himself, was having a concierge doctor at their immediate disposal.

Even if Kaidan left now, he would be late for his first class of biotic students. In any case, he didn't want to leave Brielle alone to deal with the doctor; he had never seen her so fragile. He would never have believed that "Shepard" and "fragile" were two concepts that ever could meet. He just wished he knew what was happening to her.

Little did he know that from this day forward, the order that dictated their lives ever since life in the military was going to be thrown into chaos for the next nine months.


	16. 16 Thanks

**16.**  
**thanks**

For someone who led a life filled to the brim with unwelcome and unpleasant things, Brielle Shepard had a surprising number of things to be eternally grateful for.

A kind, fierce, beautiful husband -kind in his disposition, fierce in his heart, and beautiful in his spirit. He was the rare sort that made for a perfect partner on any level yet also made for a dedicated and fiery lover. It was the nature of Kaidan's character that drew Brielle into his bed far more than her natural attraction to his raw physicality.

Two wonderful children, a girl and a boy she never thought possible. Commander Shepard, a mother? The thought had never even crossed her mind until the day she found out she was already several weeks pregnant. It was a different sort of adventure than the ones she was used to: feeding two very fussy babies, keeping Michelle occupied with the vid screen long enough to change David's diapers (and vice versa), fixing broken toys and putting the twins down for naps and watching them every second of every day. It took stamina, and Brielle Shepard certainly had plenty of that.

A quiet, private home, far enough away from the public eye to ensure that two of the biggest faces of the Reaper War could find real peace.

There were other things: good friends and great food and enough money to allow for Brielle to do whatever she pleased. But she found herself most grateful for the moments alone with her family, watching the sun set over the water from their balcony, simply being.

Brielle Shepard was thankful.


	17. 17 Look

**17.**  
**look**

When she isn't paying attention, Kaidan likes to look at her.

He finds himself simply losing himself as he took in images of Brielle's individual features: the curve of her chin, the length of her slender legs, the arch of her eyelashes, the movement of her neck...

Kaidan loved every part that made up the whole of Brielle Shepard. She was the most beautiful woman in the world.

It was a reasonably warm December afternoon as they sat on the balcony together, as was their custom after work. Kaidan slipped a mug of hot tea into Brielle's hands as he sat down beside her.

"I was thinking," he said, "that we should go out to eat tonight. They opened a new restaurant a few miles away. We could go there."

"I could use a nice date night," Brielle said happily. She turned to face her husband. "What?" she said, catching the way he was gazing at her.

"I'm just looking at the most beautiful woman in the world," he said simply. He leaned over, held her chin in his hand, and kissed her. Brielle pressed against him with a sigh, pausing to set her mug down a reasonably safe distance away.

Kaidan traded looks for touches as he closed his eyes and parted his lips, tasting the warm tea on Brielle's mouth as she kissed him. He slipped a hand beneath her shirt and stroked a nipple lightly with his thumb, catching each moan she let escape within his mouth as she pressed her tongue against his own. Her hand was at the back of his head, clutching and petting his hair as he broke away, only to trail his lips down the length of her neck, sucking lightly all the way to her collarbone. Another hand reached underneath her shirt, and Brielle moaned as Kaidan fondled her, squeezing and pressing against her more persistently now. He could feel her entire body melting beneath his touch; he groaned deeply against her shoulder and bit softly. Brielle felt the spark.

"Kaidan-" she murmured, pulling at his hair more firmly with one hand as she reached to fumble with his belt with her other. He pulled Brielle's pants down with one hand, still maintaining an inexorable pressure on her right breast, as he allowed her to push his own pants down below his knees. Brielle climbed over so she was sitting astride him, then sank to her knees, letting him penetrate her. She let out a small cry of pleasure as Kaidan's body shook, then bucked against her instinctively. He groped Brielle more fiercely, and Brielle pressed her face against his neck and wrapped her arms around his back as she rode him, panting raggedly as they found a steady but intense rhythm together. It didn't seem to matter how fast they thrust, however; it was never quite rough enough for the two of them. The steady thrusts devolved into fervent thrashing, until Kaidan's hands found their way to his wife's back and Brielle was nearly sobbing with hungry desire.

"More, I need more-" she groaned, her voice shaking as she formed words between very thrust of their bodies. "Harder-"

Another spark. Brielle's vision was obscured by blue light as Kaidan's biotics began charging. His skin was tingling, vibrating, and both of their bodies were on fire as Kaidan started to press inside of Brielle more furiously. She let out a sound somewhere between a shriek and a sigh of delight as he pounded into her, filling her so completely that she felt as though he was ripping her orgasm out of her.

Kaidan panted almost savagely as Brielle shook violently around him. He maintained the same fierce rhythm, even as Brielle's body calmed. She continued to ride him, sighing with contentment and grasping at his back, until Kaidan came too, discharging a wave of electricity so powerful that he felt Brielle herself shake. She cried out as a second climax hit her with such surprise that she thrust brutally, wonderfully, against him.

They were not coherent for a very long time after that. When they finally got up to prepare for dinner, the tea lay cold and forgotten.


	18. 18 Summer

**18.**  
**summer**

As the days grew longer and hotter, Brielle's belly grew bigger and bigger.

She got regular calls from the old gang, and she was still getting used to the fact that they never brought bad news with them. Wrex and Bakara were busy raising their two young kids (and were already working on a third) while they led the effort to rebuild Turchanka. It was Bakara who called most often, and Brielle was delighted by the relationship that was developing between them. Liara, while a welcome face, was difficult to speak with at length. She simply could not prevent herself from bombarding Brielle with endless questions about human pregnancy; those conversations always made Brielle feel tired and a little dizzy afterward. Talking to Garrus always helped Brielle put things into perspective on difficult days, since he liked to talk about the things she was most comfortable with, mostly the "good old days." On occasion he would discuss Tali, whom he visited often. He was working alongside his father in the effort to rebuild Palaven, while Tali was doing the same thing on Rannoch.

Brielle shared a particularly uncomfortable conversation with Tali one afternoon about the possibility of having children of her own. Tali was torn between making a home on Rannoch, and setting an example for her people, or making a life with Garrus. Brielle was more than relieved when Kaidan arrived home, cutting their discussion short.

The summer heat was calming at a time when Brielle's hormones were raging. She had difficulty negotiating the distance from the balcony to the kitchen to the bathroom, and unfortunately, she found it necessary to make this trip more and more frequently throughout the day. Thankfully, things were easier when Kaidan came home in the afternoons; he was always willing to help her get up and sit down and fetch anything she needed. He liked the sit with her on the balcony; they would talk or read or just sit in silence and look out at the water. Even when Brielle fell asleep sitting there, Kaidan would stay with her.

Summer was an awfully nice time of the year.


	19. 19 Transformation

**19.**  
**transformation**

Shepard had been forced to grow up almost overnight herself after losing her pseudo-adoptive family all those years ago. She didn't have the first clue about how to be a mother, and in the months leading up to the birth of David and Michelle, she began to worry.

One particular evening in late August, Kaidan found her a sobbing mess on the floor of their bathroom - the only time he had seen her cry since the morning before she found out she was pregnant. The next day, his mother visited with her usual weekly basket of goodies and advice. She put her arms around Brielle and told her that she wasn't alone in this, that she would always have a ready and practiced hand whenever she needed it. She knew that Brielle needed to hear the words from another mother who empathized, not just a husband who could only sympathize.

Brielle was eternally grateful for that visit.

During the final month of her pregnancy, Brielle began to change. It was the strangest phenomenon in a life comprised almost entirely of strangeness.

Brielle Shepard would always be a warrior; that was simply in her nature. But she was no longer a soldier. The galaxy post-Reapers was a place she no longer knew. It was a place where she was not able to be Brielle, only _Commander Shepard_. As a result, she would never be able to do the work of a Spectre as a war hero; she would be relegated to a figurehead position by a galaxy that had elevated her to almost mythical status over the past few years.

The truth of this was perhaps more terrifying than the thought of raising children. Would she be defined now by her status as a mother? Was that befitting of someone like her?

Was that really so bad?

Wouldn't it be nice to simply be normal?

Soldier or mother, those were abstract concepts that the rest of the galaxy used to define her. Brielle, however, chose to let the things she loved define her. Children would not define her: David and Michelle, specifically, could. A Husband would not define her: Kaidan, specifically, could.

But only if Brielle let them.

She did.


	20. 20 Tremble

**20.**  
**tremble**

The only times Brielle Shepard ever trembled, it was in anticipation.

She had faced down the greatest threat to galactic civilization head-to-head countless time, but her body remained firm. There was only one time that she ever truly trembled.

In Kaidan's arms.

When he brushed his lips against her own and pressed against her. When he murmured beautiful words and made her blush. When he touched her and made her body sing.

When they trembled together, the whole word fell away.

There were times when Kaidan would look over and see Brielle shaking her leg restlessly, or rocking softly, or shivering slightly. That was _her_ spark, _her_catalyst. Kaidan would lean over and press his lips against hers, and Brielle would respond with grateful, eager enthusiasm.

He might then explore the length of her body with those lips, then disappear beneath her thighs as he drew her into his mouth. Or he might slide a hand beneath the waistband of her pants and press a finger inside of her, coaxing breathy moans from her as he kissed her more and more deeply.

She might want to push him down instead, to pull his own pants down and grasp his swelling cock; to pump him rapidly as she explored his body, from the ample muscles of his arms to the supple flesh of his neck. She might lower herself to his thighs, where she would brush her fingertips against the the more tender places, teasing heady groans from him before running her tongue against those same places, carefully and deliberately. She might then take all of him into her mouth then, still massaging his balls and perineum as she sucked and swallowed around him.

Sometimes they would come, then lay in each other's arms, calmed and sated. But not often.

Often, they would pause on the brink of a climax. Kaidan would press inside of her and Brielle would press her hips against his to meet him; there would be vigorous clutching and breathy moans and frenetic kisses that all melted into a single ball of euphoria and desire and glorious feeling around them.

When Brielle trembled, Kaidan knew. And he delivered her.


	21. 21 Sunset

**21.**  
**sunset**

Dusk was a magical time of day for Brielle and Kaidan.

During their time on the Normandy, they were lucky if they managed to catch a decent look at a sky unblemished by the presence of Reapers, much less a sky like Earth's.

Brielle and Kaidan never missed sunset together. It was their time to unwind, to talk about their day, or else jus sit in comfortable silence hand-in-hand. Even with the children, there always seemed to be time to escape to the balcony together, even if it were for a few minutes at most.

Years later, with David working as an alliance medical officer and Michelle graduated from the N7 program, Kaidan's hands were a bit rougher and Brielle's face was more lined, but not much else had changed. A bottle of wine between them, Brielle would take Kaidan's hand and whisper the same words she always said at sunset:

"We're here, Kaidan. We made it."


	22. 22 Mad

**22.**  
**mad**

Later, they would chuckle about the fact that it was always the little things that drove them mad. It might be Brielle with her perpetual inability to pick up after herself that drove poor, overparticular Kaidan up the wall. Or it might be Kaidan eating all of the food in the house during what he liked to refer to as one of his "biotic binges."

These little things hardly ever led to any sort of confrontation or fighting, for the most part. Only when Brielle was experiencing a particularly bad mood swing, or Kaidan was having a decidedly painful migraine, did either of them ever raise their voices. But the thrill of finding themselves actually yelling prevented them from completing any argument; the moment they both realized what they were doing, Brielle and Kaidan dissolved into laughter and forgot all about what had prompted the disagreement in the first place.

That was how life went for them. Two minutes of tension over something insignificant, then another month of complete peace.

It was so different from their lives before the end of the war. Complete calm. Despite the fact that the calm of domestic life still felt strange after all this time, like a temporary reprieve or a few days' shore leave.

It made every day that much more beautiful for them.


	23. 23 Thousand

**23.**  
**thousand**

I love you, I love you, I love you. They could never say it enough, because they had spent far too long keeping silent about their feelings for each other. At least, Brielle had. Kaidan was a man of strong feeling, and he had never hidden how integral his passion was to his actions and his identity.

Brielle, by the nature of her upbringing, had learned to remain unemotional and impassive. It was part of the reason that N7 training had been so much more bearable for her than for the typical N7 candidate; the harsh conditions all trainees were forced to endure were simply amplified versions of the environment Brielle had grown up in.

It was Kaidan who had softened her, who had helped her to consciously acknowledge those feelings that guided her. He had given her more inner strength than Brielle knew she possibly could have. The emotions that she had been burying and hiding for years came to light in Kaidan's presence.

Even if Brielle said "I love you" a thousand times every day for the rest of their lives, it would never be enough to express just how grateful she was for how deeply Kaidan had affected her.

So she never stopped saying it. Because, somehow, Kaidan already knew. Maybe he always had.


	24. 24 Outside

**24.**  
**outside**

By the time the rain had stopped, Kaidan and Brielle were on their second cups of tea. Brielle stepped out from under the awning of their balcony and leaned against the railing, looking out at the water below. Kaidan stood up and slid his hands around Brielle's waist and pressed a kiss against her neck. She smiled and leaned back against her husband.

"Is it too late to go swimming, do you think?" she asked.

"Never," Kaidan replied. Brielle threaded her fingers through the hands at her waist and, hand in hand, the two of them made their way downstairs and out onto their back terrace, leaving a trail of discarded clothing in their wake.

Of course, a swim was the furthest thing from either of their minds. The moment they touched the water, they reached for each other. Brielle's desire at this moment is all too voracious; capturing Kaidan's mouth in a kiss so fierce that he feels his biotics beginning to charge by virtue of her enthusiasm alone, she tangles a hand in his hair and presses his body against the side of the pool. She grasps for his cock and strokes him slowly, concentrating most of her efforts on his mouth.

Kaidan's breath was harsh and ragged against Brielle's lips, which formed into a smile as she pressed more insistently against him. Kissing seemed to turn her on like nothing else; it was the most personal part of their lovemaking for her. Maybe it was because of her fixation on Kaidan's mouth: on the stubble that surrounded it, the words that came from it, that damned smile that formed around his lips and drove her nearly insane with rapacious desire.

Brielle hardly ever teased her husband to this extent, to the point where he was practically quivering with need, but the litany of groans and growls Kaidan was pressing against her mouth was too delicious to pass up.

So she had no right to complain when he broke off, pressed his mouth against her neck, and lifted her. Brielle wrapped her legs around his Kaidan's waist as he buried himself inside of her, and grasped at his hair as he punctuated every thrust of his hips with a suck or a bite along the base of her neck. The movement of their bodies sent the water rippling around them, engulfing them, until the heat of Kaidan's biotic charge overtook all other external sensation, bringing them to a stimulating, simultaneous climax.

Only when their bodies came back to Earth did they realize that the water around them was not from the pool.

Rain again.

Damn Vancouver weather.


	25. 25 Winter

**25.**  
**winter**

The first winter snowfall of Vancouver didn't hit that year until mid-February. That morning, Kaidan and Brielle were able to sit by the bay windows with six-month-old David and Michelle on their laps and watch a a blanket of snow spread over English Bay. As Brielle sipped the remnants of her second cup of tea, Kaidan's mother arrived for an unexpected visit. While she scooped David and Michelle into her arms for a hug, Brielle shuffled off to the downstairs kitchen to make a third round of tea for three.

"Just one," Kaidan whispered into her ear as she reached for the mugs (and nearly dropped them at the sound of his voice).

"Dammit Kaidan," Brielle spluttered. "Don't do that!"

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Just one cup," he said, punctuating his words with a kiss on the neck. "We're going out."

"What?"

"Mom's taking care of the kids for a few hours. I called her this morning."

"Why?" Brielle asked briskly.

"Well," Kaidan replied, "We still haven't make that snowman."


	26. 26 Diamond

**26.**  
**diamond**

No matter what Brielle said to the contrary, Kaidan knew that his wife was going to be a damn near perfect mother.

She had been concerned about motherhood throughout her pregnancy. She was thrilled to be starting a family, but, given the nature of her own upbringing, she seriously doubted her maternal abilities._ I don't know the first thing about what makes a parent_, was her constant refrain. And though she never voiced it aloud, Brielle was also concerned about how becoming a mother might compromise her ability to go back to work with the Alliance. She had, after all, been preparing for a potential position as an N7 officer at the nearby training station when she had discovered that she was pregnant. She never said it, but she didn't need to. Kaidan knew it anyway.

There was a negative connotation attached to motherhood. In a world where more and more women were joining men on the front lines every day, especially after the Reaper War was won by a woman, popular culture seemed to view the choice of maternity over military as a sign of weakness and lack of conviction. Then again, the only life Brielle had ever known was defined by military action. All the same, it was difficult for her to overcome her impression that domesticity was a rather feeble vocation.

That was why Kaidan came home one afternoon with a diamond ring in hand.

He and Brielle had been in agreement that their union should not be defined by the outdated traditions of a gaudy marital culture. She had been particularly adamant about keeping diamonds out of the equation altogether. So when Kaidan set the open box on the table in front of her, he was not surprised to see her eyes widen and her expression harden.

"What's this?" she said simply. She didn't want to hurt Kaidan's feelings or scold him for buying her a gift, despite the fact that she had very clearly stated that she did not want such a thing.

"This is not an engagement ring, if that's what you're thinking," Kaidan said quickly. "We decided against that, after all."

"Well then," Brielle said, frowning slightly. "I'm not sure what the occasion is."

"You're worried," Kaidan replied, "because of the baby. You don't think that being a parent is, well ... you don't think it's fitting for you. I think you're afraid of choosing something that you see as a weak path."

His voice hardened, laced with determination.

"But it takes the same sort of stamina to raise a kid as it does to fight a Reaper. You need to balance the need for brute force with a careful, more delicate approach. It's physically and mentally exhausting."

He inclined his head toward the diamond.

"When you were the commander of the Normandy, you were the rock that grounded everyone on the crew. The way you dealt with everything you faced during the war is irrefutable proof that you are the perfect candidate for motherhood. You never let anything lay a scratch on your resolve or your conviction. You're beautiful and strong and tough as all hell. I'm not giving you a diamond; I'm giving you a mirror. You're the diamond, Brielle."

Brielle could not think of anything to say to this, so she let the kiss shared between the two of them at that moment do the talking for her.

"It isn't me," Brielle murmured. "It's us. The diamond," she added as Kaidan gave her a quizzical look. "You know the only thing that can scratch a diamond is another diamond? You're a diamond too, Kaidan."


	27. 27 Letters

**27.**  
**letters**

One message per week. That's the limit placed upon recruits in the N7 program. It meant that Brielle agonized on some level for the better part of each week until her letter from Michelle.

She more than anyone understood what her daughter would be going through. She would be living under harsh conditions and subjected to evaluations bordering on brutal, with the added pressure of living up to the N7 program's most famous recruit: Brielle Shepard, her own mother.

Brielle had been sure to impress upon Michelle the fact that she was her own person, and that she need only live up to her own potential and carve out her own identity. But she was sure that the commanding officers wouldn't be thinking along those lines; they would definitely be expecting more from Michelle than from any of the other members of her squad. It frustrated Brielle to no end, which was why she wanted to know as much about Michelle's training as she could.

Kaidan reached for her hand one Saturday evening, the night before one of Michelle's monthly inspections. These messages were the most maddening to wait for, because they gave Brielle the most information about how the commanding officers were treating her daughter. Kaidan squeezed his wife's hand lightly and pressed a kiss to her cheek. This was his way of saying _Relax_.

Brielle leaned in and seized Kaidan's mouth with her own, pressing hungry kisses against his lips.

"She's okay," Kaidan muttered, his constant refrain on days like these. He knew that when she was laboring under a buildup of stress, Brielle needed soft words and not-so-soft touches to calm her. Her capacity as a sexual being had laid dormant for so long, quelled by Alliance regulations and fierce battles and goddamned Reapers, that it burst forth from her now, when the galaxy was at peace and her N7 days were all but over.

Kaidan slipped a hand beneath the waistband of Brielle's pants and squeezed her ass none too gently, reacting to the heat building inside of himself as she moaned desperately into his mouth. A moment later, Brielle's hands had freed Kaidan's cock from the placket of his jeans and were stroking the length of it vigorously.

Sex worked one of two ways for Brielle Shepard: slow, sensual, and intensely passionate, or fast, fierce, and incredibly rough. Right now, she needed the latter.

At times like these, she tended to fixate completely on Kaidan's body, and by extension, his pleasure as her method of release. But Kaidan knew better than to let her focus entirely on him; on the infrequent occasions that he made that mistake, Brielle would continually try to draw climax after climax from him, even as he protested that he was physically incapable of doing so. Those were the moments that frightened Kaidan, when he could see the frenzied, maddening look in Brielle's eyes that he had only ever seen once before: after Thessia.

Kaidan pushed Brielle's pants all the way down and pressed his mouth against her, sucking relentlessly and stroking her clit with his tongue. She threw her head back and let out a desperate cry of mingled pleasure and gratitude as Kaidan began to hum, letting his lips vibrate vigorously against her. It took a minute for him to realize that the stream of cries that followed were begs: _Please. Please, Kaidan_.

In one fluid motion, Kaidan picked her up, thrust her against the armchair, and sunk inside of her. Brielle let out a piercing cry of passion as she met his embrace, wrapping her legs and arms around him as their mouths and hips met. She pressed words into his mouth as she came, thrusting frantically.

_I love you, I love you, I love you._

_Thank you._


	28. 28 Promise

**28.**  
**promise**

"When this is over, I'm gonna be waiting for you. You better show up."

On quiet, peaceful nights, the unspoken promise that Brielle's words demanded of Kaidan came back to them. Their love may have been the result of a wartime romance, but those circumstances didn't dictate their relationship. What brought them together was not the glue that kept them together. What they had came from a deeper, mutual sentiment and attraction. The fact that they worked just as well sitting on a balcony sipping tea as they did coordinating a deadly mission spoke to that.

Their ability to communicate wordlessly also transcended the Reaper War. Every hitch in Kaidan's chest, every breathy moan that Brielle uttered, every gentle brush of skin against skin meant something different in the unique language of their relationship.

Even on the nights when the two of them only sat beside each other, reading or watching vids or sleeping (if Kaidan had had a particularly trying day), the passion between them remained. Every kiss held meaning, none were wasted. Every night that Brielle and Kaidan could fall asleep beside each other or holding each other was beautiful.

Because Kaidan had shown up. He had known that Brielle was alive and waiting for her.

Even when they had been billions of miles away, the promise between them remained. And it brought them together.

They had spent far too much time apart during the war. They would never let themselves be that far from each other again.


	29. 29 Simple

**29.**  
**simple**

It was the little things. The way Kaidan rubbed his neck when he was nervous or embarrassed. The small smile that curled the side of his mouth. The way he made tiny chuckles as he spoke.

These were the things that drove Brielle Shepard crazy, and they were the reasons she adored her husband so much.

A fiercely strong core and moral center, but a kind and gentle soul. Just what someone like Brielle, hardened but passionate, needed. They were united in their moral determination, but attracted on a more primal level by those little things. The things that didn't necessarily speak to their convictions alone, but to the other parts of their identities as well.

Generosity. Tenacity. Inherent goodness.

Brielle's physical attraction to Kaidan was borne of her admiration of those things that made him the soldier he was. More than that, she appreciated the way Kaidan the Soldier was the same as Kaidan the Man in spirit.

When they made love, no touch was idle or wasted. They knew all too well that everything could be lost without a moment's notice. Even as they remained certain of the relative peace in the galaxy following the war, they maintained that doctrine of living with the same sentiments that they shared from the very beginning: wildly passionate even in comfort, never taking a moment for granted, knowing that every single second they spent beside each other was nothing short of a miracle.

Brielle laid across the counter and shuddered as Kaidan grasped her hands, weaving his fingers between hers, and placed a kiss against the small of her back as he pressed inside of her. The simple things stimulated them, building to a peak: small quivers in Brielle's legs as she strained to lay flatter and flatter against the counter so as to take him in deeper and deeper; the crackling of Kaidan's skin as he built towards his spark; the pressure that passed between their hands as a means of wordless communication; the softness of Kaidan's tongue against Brielle's skin as he sucked and bit at her neck and shoulder; the pitch of Brielle's breaths that grew with every thrust of their bodies; the gorgeously guttural tone of Kaidan's groans.

These were simple things. But the climaxes were anything but.

And neither were they.


	30. 30 Future

**30.**  
**future**

Brielle Shepard's life seemed to begin anew on September 17, 2189. Years later, she will remember the exact moment in vivid detail: Kaidan sitting by her side, smiling more broadly than he ever had before, as they held their newborn children.

Michelle and David. She thought it was impossible to be happier in her life with Kaidan until that moment.

"You're glowing," Kaidan murmured, pressing a kiss on the top of her head.

"I just can't believe all of this is real," she said quietly. She took his hand and squeezed lightly. "That you're real. That _we're_real."

"I know," Kaidan sighed. "We're damn lucky, Shepard."

Brielle chuckled. "That we are."

-end


End file.
